Denouement December 30, 2008

I haven’t written anything in a few days, have I?  Oops.  It’s been busy, what with felting four pairs of clogs. Oy, that was a lot of felting!  Even in the washer.  The father/brother-in-law got some nice heathered earth tones, Pampas, Camel and Amber Heather.  Very nice.  Lowell’s are Forest and Claret, a somewhat interesting choice and still up for debate.  It looked so darn good in the skeins.  My mother-in-law’s turned out the best, I think.  White and black with embroidered spots to look like dalmatians!  Very cute, I think.

 

     

  

 

I received some great gifts, like the Yarn Harlot’s page-a-day calendar and the first two volumes of Barbara Walker’s stitch dictionaries.  So many ideas… so little time.  Lowell and a friend bought me the whole set of Harmony interchangeable circulars, so I now can knit my worsted weight with more than a size 7 or size 10.5.  Very helpful, let me tell you!  Didn’t get that blocking board that I was hinting at but that’s okay.  I’ll acquire it another way, *evil laugh*.

 

In terms of gifts given to other people, they all went pretty well.  Obviously, I’ve told you about the family of slippers.  Did I mention that I’m now sick of that pattern and don’t want to see it again for at least a year… and now, right after I cast off the last stitch of the last slipper joyous about the fact that I wouldn’t be knitting any more slippers… now my pair of slippers developed a hole in the sole that apparently no amount of needle felting is useful against.  Oh, the irony!  Guess I’ll be knitting that pattern again very soon…

 

Oh right, other knitted gifts.  Well, my mother-in-law got a lovely pair of socks, knit from Dream in Color Smooshy in Deep Sea Flower.  The pattern will be up shortly (I hope.)

 

     

 

And Lowell got a hat (this was the last minute project that I’m still surprised I pulled off without him seeing much of it.)  I love this hat so much.  It turned out a little short for him (despite the obsessive attention to length), but fits me great!  I’ll be ripping back to before the decreases and making it a little longer for him; shouldn’t take more than an hour or so.  I will also be knitting this hat for me!  I’m thinking a white background with dark to light blue accents.  I may already have the yarn in my Knit Picks cart.  The pattern will also be up soon.

 

   

It’s NOT mid-December! December 12, 2008

I have my Christmas knitting under control.  I have my Christmas knitting under control.  I have my Christmas knitting under control.

 

At least, I would have if I had followed The Plan.  The Plan was smart.  The Plan was charismatic.  Well, maybe not charismatic.  It’s just a plan, after all.  The amount of Christmas knitting that I assigned myself has not significantly changed since October, except that I whacked a few things off the list.  No, The Plan was not a project strategy.

The Plan was all about yarn acquisition.  The Plan dictated that I order some yarn while I was out of town for Thanksgiving so that said yarn would arrive at my house when I did, thus leaving me ample (um, “ample”) time to knit the last thing on the list.

 

Yeah, that yarn didn’t actually get ordered until a few days ago.  The yarn won’t be here until early next week.  Leaving me, at best, three days between the arrival of my yarn and the arrival of my in-laws.  (Read that as “three days that include cleaning, running errands, and doctors’ appointments.”)  I’m really excited about my in-laws coming here for Christmas instead of us heading down to them this year.  But that means I’ll have significantly less time to do secret knitting, unless I skip out on some of the fun and/or hide at the Starbucks and knit frantically.  Hmm, I might be able to knit this last thing before they arrive… Hope springs eternal for knitters at Christmas, right? 

 

Well, at least I planned the rest of the knitting well.  It should all be finished by the end of the weekend, leaving me “ample” time to knit the last item.

 

 

You can see Arwen is happily making herself at home on one of the finished projects [Ravelry link for secrecy].  She has suddenly become a complete wool-head.  She’d rather sleep on the pile off wool in the middle of the couch than on a lap now.  If the bits of wool are too small, she’ll try to shove as much of herself on the wool as possible then look at me indignantly, as if it’s my fault that she can’t fit on the small project.  Well, I guess I did promise her a wool blanket of her own that she can sleep on and knead to her heart’s content.  I’m going to get around to it, really.  I just have to finish the Christmas knitting.  Stop looking at me like that!!

 

  

 

We’ve started calling her a “sheep cat.”  She’d herd the sheep… and then sleep on them.